One Ring to Log In All - Google YubiKey

Google is working on small devices — including one designed as a ring — that people would need to log onto all of their online accounts, Wired reported. Such devices could add a layer of security to online email, banking and other accounts, but they could also add another necessity for people to carry around in their purses or wallets.

Google's security team are experimenting with extra log-in hardware because they thought passwords aren't enough to deter hackers anymore, Wired reported. Because of the increasing sophistication of hacks, everything that is now password-protected might in the future require some kind of personal key, too, the Google researchers thought.

Google has experimented with YubiKey, a small card that plugs into computers' USB ports. They also imagined that tomorrow's Internet keys could be built into rings or smartphones, which would eliminate the need to carry around an extra device. The jewelry and smartphone-based keys could work with a tap.

One of the major challenges now is to convince other websites to agree to a unified log-in system.

Google's ideas for increasing the security of online accounts are alternatives to another popular idea, adding biometrics such as iris or fingerprint scans to people's personal devices.